WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot is turning its attention to a fellow lawmaker for the first time, with a request for information from Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a letter to Perry on Monday that the bipartisan panel has evidence connecting him to events surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Thompson said Perry was involved in efforts to make former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark the acting attorney general during the final months of the Trump administration.
“We have received evidence from multiple witnesses that you had an important role in the efforts to install Mr. Clark as acting Attorney General," Thompson said, citing former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, who were in those posts at the tail end of former President Donald Trump's time in office.
"Acting Attorney General Rosen and acting Deputy Attorney General Donoghue have provided evidence regarding these issues, and we have received evidence that others who worked with Mr. Clark were aware of these plans," Thompson wrote.
He went on to say the committee has information indicating that Perry communicated "at various relevant times with the White House and others involved in other relevant topics, including regarding allegations that the Dominion voting machines had been corrupted.”
Perry's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Perry is the first lawmaker being pressed for information by the committee. Numerous Trump allies and former administration officials have been subpoenaed, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who served in the House before he joined the Trump administration.
Perry, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who entered Congress in 2013, objected to Pennsylvania's electors just hours after the Jan. 6 riot, along with seven other GOP members of the state's congressional delegation. He was also involved in pushing election fraud conspiracy theories in Pennsylvania.
Thompson proposed a meeting with Perry by Jan. 4, offering in the letter to meet in Perry's Pennsylvania district.
